TV shows we love: The Office

Of all the TV shows I have enjoyed, one of my favourites has to be The Office. Yes, I know, it’s neither new, nor original for that matter, as it is based on a UK version featuring Ricky Gervais.

None of that matters! As far as I see it, The Office will be enjoyed for decades, it will be a cornerstone for future sit com writers and a how-to guide for aspiring actors.

The premise is quite simple. A boring paper company is the setting, an inept and delusional boss is the main character and a plethora of quirky, annoying, endearing and creepy co-workers as the supporting cast.

Filmed in the style of a mockumentary, the series lasts for nine long seasons. Enough for a viewer to get bored, you might think. Wrong!

Usually, documentaries and mockumentaries alike strive to show interesting, peculiar or distant realities. The Office does exactly the opposite. However, a menial office, rather small and not particularly lively, and some of the most anonymous jobs ever seen on TV become the centre of a human play that manages to speak to everyone.

Selling paper is just a premise, but it works to perfection. Undistracted by events or situations that might appear too far from our reality, we can focus more on the everyday struggles of the characters. Our own struggles.

Whether it is office dynamics or relationships with colleagues or boring and frustrating inconveniences at work, we can recognise them all and identify ourselves in them.

At the same time, everything Michael Scott (played by genius Steve Carrell), Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) or Dwight Schrute (probably the best character of the entire series, played by Rainn Wilson) do is over the top, farcical, cringy, wrong and terribly funny.

Absolute familiarity with a heavy dash of crazy. That’s why The Office is and will remain one of the best shows ever made!